paralistalon

I was referring to the paladin's defensive bounus from Faith and Conviction. I know any character can get Cruel or Aggressive to level 4 and can sometimes use those to pass dialogue checks, but only a BW paladin will get an additional defensive bonus from those dispositions. I figure a good "evil" party would include: **SPOILERS** Grieving Mother- as you said, she was manipulative. Also, she is more of an "ends justify the means" person, so I don't think she would have a problem justifying harsh actions as long as it healed the hallowborn crisis. Aloth- I'm sure he did some horrible things when he was in with the Leaden Key, and in at least one ending scenario, he reactivates the machine in Defiance Bay, killing hundreds. He also has it out for animancers. Durance- by far the darkest character, after the Saint's War, he went around burning and torturing the surviving followers of Eothas (one of the only "good" gods, next to Hylea), and he also targeted watchers and tried to murder Grieving Mother! Hiravias- a follower of Galawain, the god that created the monsters and endorses a survival of the fittest mentality. Eder- because he's by far the most likable and humorous character, you need a tank, and hey, as a follower of Eothas, he'd believe in the eventual redemption of even the most wicked player character.

I'm not sure but could it be better to dump Con and max out Res/Per to capitalize on deflection? At least on patch 1.05, I tested the effects of INT on DoT skills like Envenomed Strike, and with an increase in INT, there's an increase in total damage output (for example, instead of saying 50 damage over 11 seconds, an increase in INT will change the skill to say something like 56 damage over 12.5 seconds, which means the skill has a base damage per second, and the more seconds the effect lasts, the more total damage). My understanding is also that DoT effects never stack with themselves, so this would mean that you wouldn't want to hit with a second Envenomed Strike until the first effect ended. Since this is how Deep Wound works as well (I assume... I haven't taken the skill on a Rogue yet and tinkered with INT to see how it adjusts the description), and with a base description of 10 damage over 10 seconds, INT only matters in terms of 1) how fast can you hit the same target repeatedly? and 2) do you intend to focus fire on one enemy at a time, or are you okay with switching targets? Let's assume you're only concerned with hitting one target over and over again until they die. If your INT is minimal, leading to a 6.5 second Deep Wound duration, then as long as you can hit the same target again within 6.5 seconds, an increase in INT won't lead to an increase in damage. That is because you will keep refreshing the DoT so that the enemy is always taking an extra 1 DPS. But that's assuming you NEVER miss. Because you will miss sometimes, an increase in INT will likely work in your favor. Also, if you have a slower weapon or if you ever switch enemies, then an increase in INT will work in your favor. TLDR: Higher INT on a rogue has no downside (except for the cost of another stat being lower). Whether or not the upside is worth it depends on how you build your rogue. If you take both crippling strike and blinding strike, envenomed strike and deep wounds, and possibly have some spellbound gear or a weapon that inflicts a status effect, then INT may be fairly useful.

This was one of the hardest fights for me in PotD. After reloading a half dozen times, I just went back and completed the quest in a different way that didn't require me to fight the banshee and spirits. Perhaps I could have done it if I came back when I was closer to level 10, lol!

I played a Bleak Walker through the game and didn't have anyone leave my party (although I didn't stumble upon GM until I already cleared most of Act 2!). For the most part, your companions seem to follow your lead even if you are cruel/aggressive, although honestly, most of the cruel dialogue options were just from throwing insults around rather than actually doing anything "cruel," with a couple of notable exceptions. You said you're only at the beginning, so as you uncover your companions' pasts, you will learn that half of them are guilty of some pretty horrible things on their own. As a side note, I really enjoyed a Bleak Walkers playthrough: out of all the paladin orders, for the BW, it actually makes sense why your rep is linked to your disposition- namely, the more aggressive and intimidating you come across, the more likely they are to be hesitant in battle against you, which translates to the small defense bonus. And about getting Eder's records in the archive, you must not be playing with the unqualified interactions option enabled, otherwise you would see that there is at least one way to get the records without having to build a positive rep.

Wow, really cool piece of character backstory! It clearly demonstrates how strong GM is. I vividly remember the dialogue with Durance where he talks about how he learned to, presumably through horrible torture, damage a soul itself rather than just take a life. After that, I saw Durance in a whole different light, one where even my own Bleak Walker paladin was sleeping with one eye open! Durance and GM were both very high profile characters back in their day and were bound to meet again eventually... Durance waits around for years specifically to meet the watcher he saw in his visions, and GM just sits around being completely ignored to anyone that isn't a watcher. I also find it interesting that both Durance and GM, upon meeting them, were able to read details about the protagonist's past (the sickness, caravan attack, soul storm, awakening, etc.).